Interior threatens to shrink boundaries at Western sites, but Badger-Two Medicine might get designated.

Some public lands are too important to lose to drilling rights, and those lands just so happen to be in Montana ― the home state of Interior SecretaryRyan Zinke.

Montana won’t lose any acres or protections for its currentnational monuments, and the state may also get a brand-new 200-square-mile national monument. That could happen even as the ink dries on Zinke’s recommendation to open millions of acres of public land inotherstates to oil and gas interests.

Zinke recommended the massive Badger-Two Medicine area in northwest Montana be designated as a national monument over the summer. The designation would protect the federal lands from any oil and gas development. PresidentDonald Trumphas called public lands monuments across the nation a “massive land grab.” And Zinke has advised Trump to shrink or reduce protections for millions of acres in 10 monuments in other states.

The Upper Missouri Breaks Wild and Scenic River runs through a national monument in Montana; one that Zinke will not be shrinking.

That’s why a new monument in Montana has locals “scratching their heads,” notesNPR. “As you’re attacking the seminal accomplishments of (President Theodore) Roosevelt (who first established national monuments) and at the same time talking about adding a monument, itdidn’t make much sense,” Land Tawney, head of the Montana-based Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, told the Missoulian.

Zinke, a former Montana congressman, grew up a couple of hours west of the area he has recommended protecting from drilling rights. But many speculate that his public-lands strategy is less about familiarity and more about political strategy. Tawney and others believe Zinke will run for governor of the state when he’s done serving Trump. “I think the people of Montana hold our specialplaces very near and dear,” Tawney told NPR. “If you do not protect those places I think it’s a political nightmare for you in this state.”

Other states hold their special places near and dear as well. The White House hasn’t revealed Zinke’s recommendations for those sites. But in amemorandumobtained byThe Washington Post in September, Zinke advised Trump to modify 10 national monuments, including shrinking at least four in Western states and dropping drilling protections for others.

Zinke advised shrinking Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, Nevada’s Gold Butte, and Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou. The Utah sites alone comprise some 3.2 million acres. Zinke’s memorandum doesn’t specify how many acres might be cut. Reducing protections could also open up remaining land to commercial fishing, grazing, logging and coal mining.